Overwatch: Classic Returns! What Should Players Expect?

The US government isn’t the only thing traveling back to 2016 this year. Out of nowhere, Blizzard has revealed Overwatch: Classic for Overwatch 2, allowing players to play the original version of the game when it launched 8 years ago.

The game has been heavily tweaked throughout its evolution into its current iteration, so what should players expect from the three weeks of OW: Classic?

Back in Time to 2016

Since its launch, Overwatch has earned several patches. Now, Blizzard promises a mode that allows players to experience the game as it was almost a decade ago—which means 6v6 teams, different hero abilities, and no character limits.

The mode will only be available for three weeks, but players who aren’t curious about how the game originally came out can still play the regular 5v5 mode.

What Should Players Expect

With Classic returning, the biggest change between the first and current games is the number of team members. Now players can try out Overwatch as it was originally conceived with 6v6, and there will be the freedom to have a team composed of any number of roles—and any number of the same characters.

Classic will also bring back the 2 Capture Point game mode, which was removed from Overwatch 2. This will also bring back maps of Hanamura, the Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries, and more.

Also, the game will bring back many removed abilities when it comes to specific heroes. Admittedly, these abilities had to be removed because players were abusing them, but there was still a lot of fun with them when they were available. Some removed abilities include:

• Hanzo’s Scatter Arrow
• Symmetra’s 6 Turrets and Teleporter
• Mercy’s original Resurrection ultimate
• Torbjorn’s 3-level Turret System; armor packs
• Bastion’s original ultimate turns him into a tank; self-repairing

Many fans are wondering if Cassidy will be called “McCree” again for the return to classics, but they’re probably going to ignore that issue. It would be great if they could send one more message to the original game director, Jeff Kaplan.

Make Overwatch Great Again

Compared to Overwatch 2, the original Overwatch does seem like the wild west, with a lot less rules—but it was also considered a lot more fun with the way it launched. Admittedly, it did have some problems that had been ironed out over the past few years, but with the less characters and just the base roster, maybe fans can realize something that’s been lost over the game after all those changes.

With some being nostalgic for a mid-point in the game’s lifetime, maybe there could be an option to gauge just how far back players are willing to go in the history of Overwatch. 5-Rez Mercy could be tolerable, but Carwash Turret Symmetra was a horror some people are not willing to come back to.

Overwatch: Classic will be available for 3 weeks and is now playable for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4|5, PC, and Nintendo Switch.